


The Nose Knows

by c0cunt



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, relationship speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-09
Updated: 2016-02-09
Packaged: 2018-05-19 07:16:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5958484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c0cunt/pseuds/c0cunt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hitch, of course, was the one to mention anything.  Marlow figured it was just one of Hitch's usual ways of stirring things up.  Annie took it seriously.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Nose Knows

  It had been, of course, Hitch that had mentioned something.  How their faces looked so similarly shaped, especially in the nose, and how their resting faces were so similar.  Marlow blew it off, figuring that Hitch was (as usual) just trying to start trouble, but Annie...Annie latched onto it like a dog with a bone.  When Marlow had casually mentioned that his mother had raised him alone, Annie had rapid-fired questions about anything and everything his mother had mentioned about his father.  Which, honestly, hadn’t been much, but Annie insisted on Marlow sending a letter home to ask his mother for any information she had on his father.

  Marlow felt bad sending the letter, explaining that many of those under his command had started doing family tree projects on their own, and wanted to join in on the fun.  It was a terribly flimsy excuse, but his mother seemed to buy it, sending back a thick envelope of pages upon pages of information about his mother’s family.  It was a few hours before dinner, after his duties were complete, that he sat down in his room and apprehensively opened the letter.  (He never knew that he was related, by third cousins twice removed, to Commander Zackly, but that was one of the new things he found out.)  But the only mention of his father was a simple sentence that read “enclosed is the only photograph I have of him.  Burn it for all I care.  He disappeared soon after I told him about my pregnancy, and I have never been able to locate him.”

  Nervously, Marlow flipped over the little photo, and stared.  His mother seemed to tower over the blond man at her side, his face impassive as he stared at the camera as she beamed.  His eye color, though, seemed to have come from the man, similar gray eyes peering back at him, but aside from that, he was definitely his mother’s son.  Marlow knew that his mother was always happily saying how proud she was that he had taken after her, but seeing how little he resembled the blond man in the photo...It made him feel hollow.  He still didn’t have a father, merely a man who had given his mother the means to have a child, and disappeared without a trace before his birth.  As if he had decided that the child he had helped create wasn’t worth it…

  “Marlow, did you get a letter from your mother?”  Annie’s voice drifted through the closed door of his quarters, followed by a quick series of short knocks.  Marlow sighed; it was too much to hope that he would have some time to think before she would come asking.  Annie must’ve heard him sigh, as the door cracked as she poked her head in.  Marlow rolled his eyes at her, and grumbled “Shouldn’t you wait until I answer the door instead of barging in?”, absolutely no bite in his words.  “Here,” he added, holding out the photo, “My mother and father.”

  Annie snatched the photo out of his hands greedily, sitting on the edge of his bed.  The impassive look on her face changed quickly to shock, and she appeared to choke on her breath for half a second.  Then the impassive look was forced back, eyes revealing just how surprised she was.  “Marlow, this man…”  She trailed off, voice full of wonder, before continuing once again, “that’s my father as well.”  Annie handed the photo back to Marlow, who was gawking at her (his eyes flitting back and forth between the man in the photo and Annie, easily picking out similarities between the two now that he was focusing on them).  

  “Interesting…”  Annie breathed quietly, before leaving the room, the door closing behind her with a quiet snap, leaving Marlow alone in his thoughts, her own mind swirling with confusion as well.


End file.
